Beth Williams calls the lighthouse that her husband, Harry, built at the back of their home on the south shore of Meyers Lake a beacon that guides people.

The lantern in the top of the 45-foot lighthouse does direct visitors to their home off of 12th Street NW.

"It gives them a landmark to look for," said Harry Williams. "We like to think of it as helping people find their way."

The 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom, 1-lighthouse home in which the couple resides also attracts the attention of passersby, who frequently honk their horns and sometimes stop to take pictures.

"One man who I did work for wanted to paint it," said Williams, who has operated Williams Home Improvement for more than three decades. "So, I took him a picture, and he did an oil painting that he gave us. We've got it hanging over our fireplace."

The house sits on a lot Williams purchased in 1992. The aging cottage that occupied the land was torn down, and by 1997, Williams had begun building a bigger home.

"Because the lot was so small, we went with a Cape Cod style," said Williams, who noted his interest in lighthouses was blossoming at the time. "I thought 'Why don't I put a lighthouse on the end of it?' "

Williams, who did much of the construction himself, took more than a year to complete the home, finishing late in 1998.

The lighthouse portion is four stories high.

"We didn't have room for a spiral staircase, so there are wooden ship ladders to go up into the top of the lighthouse, first to the part where you can look out the portholes," said Williams, who noted that they had intended to make that room into a library, but haven't yet gotten that far with their plan. "Then you take a smaller ladder to go up to where we shine the lantern."

As might be expected, the lighthouse is "the first stop" for visitors to the home,

especially those with children or grandchildren. Even Williams ascends at least once a month to take in the lofty view.

"You can see pretty much to the other end of the lake from there," he said.

The tall structure has "taken on a life of its own," Williams said, and has become "a bit of a landmark." Since the Williamses are well known in Meyers Lake — she was just elected to council and he is a member of the zoning appeals board — their reputation as the lighthouse people is more known inside the village than outside of it.

Still, strangers see the lighthouse and are intrigued by it.

Once a family member was eating in a restaurant and heard people at an adjacent table talking about the changes at Meyers Lake.

Page 2 of 2 - "They mentioned the lighthouse," recalled Williams. "And one time my wife was getting her hair done and the lady in the chair next to here was talking about the lighthouse."

Even new acquaintances can be surprised when the Williamses give them directions to their home.

"When I tell them we live in the house at Meyers Lake with the lighthouse, they usually say, 'Oh!' " said Williams. "Then they say, 'We always wondered who lived there.' "